The present invention relates to an illuminated display for representing a three-dimensional object, including a display element containing the object, in which the information becomes visible when light is coupled in.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Illuminated displays are used in different fields, especially where information is to be displayed. This information may have very different forms and may be text information, a pictogram and the like. The illuminated display can also be implemented as a pure information display which is used to represent only information, but may also be combined component, wherein an additional functionality or additional components are associated with the illuminated display, for example in form of a switching unit, which may be operated for example through touch. The illuminated display is thus used to display particular information, and a function associated with the information may then be selected via the switching unit associated with or being a part of the illuminated display. Such combined components, in particular in form of switches, are used for example on machines or in automobiles for simultaneous selecting, in addition to a representation of the information, also functions or operating elements, etc., associated with the information.
The automotive field is used only as an example, where for example a number of the illuminated displays may be provided on the instrument panel, with a switching unit being associated with each display. The illuminated displays may represent, for example, three different functional states of the exterior lighting, for example the parking light via a first illuminated display, the low beam via a second illuminated display and the high beam via a third illuminated display. Each individual operating mode can now be selected by the driver by touching the illuminated display which includes a switching function. This recitation is only exemplary and should not be viewed as limiting.
Typically, illuminated displays, preferably those with associated switching functions, like the displays installed for example in an automobile, are made from a plastic part on which a symbol is imaged in a transparent fashion by light-optics, for example by using a corresponding transparent plastic which is illuminated from behind with an integrated light source and which can be recognized when the light source is switched on. It is also known to design the illuminated display for representing a three-dimensional object which represents the information to be visualized. This object becomes visible when light from a light source is coupled into the display element containing this object, with the object then quasi “floating” in the display element and becoming visible as three-dimensional information. Such display element enabling this three-dimensional representation of object information consists of a totally transparent glass body, which is intentionally “disturbed” in the interior by a laser, meaning that the glass structure is intentionally locally altered. This change is performed in the entire region that forms the object, which is made possible using a suitably controlled laser. By intentionally changing the glass structure, the reflectivity changes locally in the region of the interface between “undisturbed” glass and “disturbed glass. However, the glass on the whole, meaning the display element itself, remains transparent in the un-illuminated state, meaning that the “disturbed” region, i.e. the three-dimensional information object itself, is not visible without the coupled-in light. The object information becomes visible only after light is coupled in, because the coupled-in light is deflected or reflected at the interface due to the structural change, making the three-dimensional object visible, with the object quasi “floating” in the interior of the display element.
The object can be formed in the interior of the display element, i.e. the glass structure of a display element made from glass, can be changed locally by using a laser, because the transparency of the entire display element is not fundamentally changed in spite of the fact that the energy of the coupled-in laser light changes the structure. However, because glass components are not desirable in many areas of technology where illuminated display of the aforedescribed type can be used, in particular in an automobile, their use is precluded.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to obviate prior art shortcomings and to provide an improved illuminated display which can be used in many applications for representing a three-dimensional object.